California Corporate & Securities Law

Yesterday, the Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a noteworthy opinion addressing at least two significant questions.  Samuelian v. Life Generations Healthcare, LLC, 2024 WL 3878448.

Last year, the California legislature enacted AB 1075 (Bauer-Kahan) which declares it to be unlawful "to include a noncompete clause in an employment contract, or to require an employee to enter a noncompete agreement, that does not satisfy an...

It is that time of year when both the professional and general press feature stories about new laws that will be taking effect.  As I survey the California legislature's handiwork in 2023, I have identified the following themes:

In 2016, I wrote about the Nevada Supreme Court's refusal to "blue pencil" non-compete agreements so as to make them enforceable.  Golden Road Motor Inn, Inc. v. Islam, 132 Nev. 476, 488, 376 P.3d 151, 159 (2016).  The Nevada legislature was not in...

In the high and far-off times, physical delivery was the only option of providing documents to the other side. Before copy machines, an agreement would be written and then rewritten on the same page. The two copies would be separated by cutting them...

Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution prohibits a state from passing any law impairing the obligation of contracts. A similar prohibition is found in Article 1, Section 9 of the California Constitution. This prohibition extends to...

Since at least 1941, California has declared, with certain limited exceptions, that every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void". Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §...

It is rare that for an employer to instruct its employees not to try to lure aware a competitor's customers. It is rarer still when an employer fires an employee for doing so. These may be rare events, but apparently (or at least allegedly) they...

One unintended consequence of California's voiding of many non-compete agreements is that it puts California employers at a disadvantage with respect to employee recruitment. Employers in other states are free to hire away employees in California...